Keytouch - T9 on Steroids?

[Andy Sjostrom]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article.asp?datePublish=2003/07/08&pages=PR&seq=206' target='_blank'>http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article.asp?datePublish=2003/07/08&pages=PR&seq=206</a><br /><br /></div>This article discusses a new input method called Keytouch for mobile phones and mentions Microsoft Smartphones in particular:<br /><br />"Keytouch was developed and patented by Leon Chang, a Taiwanese-American engineer based in Walnut, California. His simple but ingenious solution was to incorporate the use of a gamepad (up-down-left-right) for character selection. Since most new smartphones already have a gamepad, it is a low-cost, much improved solution to efficient data inputting. Keytouch is ideal for the next generation of Microsoft smartphones because it includes such features as cut and paste. It can also be easily ported to other operating system handsets."<br /><br />Don't miss the graphic illustration at the end of the article! If you want to learn more about Keytouch, you can <a href="http://www.keytouch.net/">visit their web site</a> and try out their demo!

[Mike Temporale]

8O Oh that is so cool. Now that is a very fast and easy to use text input! I hope it becomes available as an installable application, and not restricted to being in ROM on new devices.

[Neil]

I dunno. The posture switching would drive me *insane*. One of the nice things about T9 is I can type with two hands on the numeric keypad. From the looks of this I'd have to keep one thumb on the number pad and one thumb on the d-pad.

[David McNamee]

I'll need to try it before passing judgement, but I cannot see this being faster than T9. That counts for both two-handed and single-handed situations. It seems that most of your time spent typing will be spent with your thumb in transit between the keypad and the game pad.

Color me skeptical.